Arts & Culture

Kekuhi Keliʻikanakaʻole is the Coordinator for the Center for Hawai’i Life Styles, UH Hilo. She’s an award winning singer, and a kumu hula, the eighth generation with Halau o Kekuhi, which bases its style of hula on the forces of Pele and her sister, Hiʻiaka. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, Keliʻikanakaʻole offers a different perspective on the current Kilauea eruption.

When you head to Kuhio Beach in the center of Waikiki, you expect to be able to rent a surfboard, maybe get lessons, or even try one of those famous outrigger canoe rides. You can do this through two for-profit city concessions, which go up to bid every five years. This time, new regulations will likely mean the end of an era. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Erick Swenson’s sculptures look so real, they make people gasp. You simply do not expect to see a life size seven point buck, flayed, its flesh peeling back from bones, lying, surprised, on a gallery floor. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, Swenson mixes animals and humans too, so you begin to think maybe some odd looking creatures really exist.

As personal stories and emergency updates continue around the current Kilauea eruption, Hawai’i’s resident teams of expert volcanologists continue their research and observations. How is this eruption different from others? How could a tsunami be generated? HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Last week, a coalition of Maui community groups presented a plan at the Alexander and Baldwin shareholders’ meeting in Honolulu. The coalition, Hukilike no Maui, is proposing to acquire five thousand acres, or 15% of A&B’s Maui land holdings, for affordable housing, agriculture, and conservation. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa was on Maui with Hukilike members to find out more about this community planning initiative.

Juvana Soliven’s beeswax sculptures could make you feel a little weak in the knees. She plays with things that are solid and stiff and other things that are droopy and soft. C.B. Forsythe’s intricate threadwork combines familiar detritus from the past with contemporary intention. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa offers this look inside their work, which is on view now at First Hawaiian Bank Center downtown.

Mid-century Modern happens to be a design phase Hawai’i did rather well. Now a new generation has a chance to snap up some of the finest local artworks of the period. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on a rare opportunity to acquire art by Hawai’i masters and benefit the Hawaii State Art Museum.

Contact Hawai’i is proving to be Honolulu’s most intellectually and visually stimulating annual art exhibition. The 2018 show opened with multiple installations in Waikiki and continues at the Honolulu Museum of Art School. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports the jurors’ combined perspectives yielded a show with energy and insight.

This year, one of Honolulu’s most important annual art exhibitions is taking its theme of contact and connection right into our tourist capital. Contact Hawai'i is bringing live art installations and displays to the middle of Waikiki tonight. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

This semester, six students will be graduating with Master of Fine Arts degrees from UH Manoa. They’ve spent the last three years intently developing their skills and creativity with video, printmaking, glass, vinyl, photography and more to be ready to face a changing job market, MFA in hand. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

In the hands of a skilled practitioner, intriguing ideas are the seeds for resonant works of art. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, some interesting ideas inform a ceramist and a photographer whose works are on view now at the First Hawaiian Center downtown.

An underground icon in Honolulu has just gone the way of male northern white rhinos. Ward’s Rafters, a weekend music venue in residential Kaimuki, has hosted its final concert. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, thousands who made the trek down the driveway and up the stairs will never forget Ward’s Rafters’ particular ambiance.

Today, Jaelynn Rose Willey, 16, died. She was standing in the hallway of her Maryland high school on Tuesday when she was shot with a semi-automatic handgun. On an average day in America, seven children and teens are killed with guns. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, since the Parkland, Florida shootings which took 17 young lives, a youth movement has taken root against gun violence.

Writer, comedian Hari Kondabolu has been hailed for working new social territory with his standup, video, and podcast projects. The New York Times calls him "one of the most necessary political comedians working today", HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports Kondabolu’s willingness to tackle even tough contemporary topics with humor and humanity set him apart.

With its $16 million dollar operating budget, the Honolulu Museum of Art, HoMA, is arguably Hawaii’s single largest cultural institution. A year ago, the Museum hired its first Hawaii-born Director. A UH Lab School grad with art history degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, Sean O’Harrow established his career in England, then moved to the Midwest. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports his quest is finding a sustainable model for the museum.

Chinese new year has always been huge in Honolulu and the Chinatown Street Fair with smoky noisy lion dances and street food you can only get there, has been a part of it--- for the last 35 years at least. People were stunned and disappointed when 2018 celebrations were canceled the week of the event. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on how it all happened.

Hawaii is known for being a crossroads of influences, and there’s a new music group in town that is forging a hybrid of classical, jazz, and pop with unique instrumentation. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports the Pacific Harp Project’s sound is more than the sum of its highly talented parts.

Pow!Wow! the annual mural painting invasion in Kaka‘ako opened big this past weekend. They’re on a roll after ten successful festivals worldwide last year, and growing. The idea of galvanizing international artists who paint hard at a huge scale, has proven to be an exciting Hawai‘i export. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Musician Mike Love was born and raised on O’ahu, he’s been playing in bands since Kaiser High School. Riding a wave of internet popularity, he’ll perform in Costa Rica this month, then in 28 cities nationally from Portland, to Key West. HPR ‘s Noe Tanigawa reports Love attracts a local following too, with rock/jazz reggae, dreads to his ankles, and a message of unity.

The solid base for Honolulu’s restaurant scene was created in the 1930’s and 40’s by an amazing number of Okinawan immigrant entrepreneurs. Two seniors from restaurant-owning families have spent over a decade documenting restaurants opened by Hawai‘i’s Okinawans, and HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports it’s an immigrant success story that leaves a tasty legacy.

How does immigration work when it works well? Perhaps Okinawans in Hawai‘i provide a good example. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports on the Hawai‘i Okinawan Restaurants Project on view now at Honolulu City Hall.

Today is Civil Liberties and the Constitution Day in Hawai‘i, honoring the birthday of Fred Korematsu, the man who challenged Executive Order 9066 in 1942. That order allowed over 120,000 ethnic Japanese to be incarcerated during WWII. Seventy percent of those prisoners were American citizens. This detention is recognized as a clear violation of civil rights, but Americans at the time did not protest, and scholars today ask whether something like that could happen again. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

In his first six months in office, Mr. Trump appointed a Supreme Court Justice, fired his FBI director, and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. The country has new tax rules and President Trump's appointees have restructured key government agencies, or changed long held practices, all amidst allegations of collusion with the Russians and unprecedented staff turnover. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports Hawai‘i Republicans are feeling a lift.

Monday’s ABC News/Washington Post poll cites a 36% job approval rating for President Trump, with those polled evenly divided on whether he is mentally stable. The first year of Mr. Trump’s presidency has meant a life change for many in American society. Here, three artists reflect on how they’ve adapted their practice to the socio-political moment. HPR's Noe Tanigawa reports.

In January 2017, over two million people participated in Women’s Marches across the globe. In Hawai‘i, an estimated 18 thousand people turned out across the state concerned about U.S. positions on climate change, immigration, healthcare, environmental regulations, and more. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports, this year, events are focused on getting out the vote.

Many were surprised by results of the 2016 election, meaning, they were surprised by the number of people who support Trump and his views. Over 100 thousand people voted for President Trump in Hawai‘i and a national group with a new chapter here is activating to advance right wing views. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

There’s a formidable art piece going in at UH Mānoa that could take you by surprise. It’s a three story painting in the stairwell on the Diamond Head side of the UH Mānoa Art Building. The stairwell has long been a forum for self-expression, which is generally encouraged by the art faculty, but HPR’s Noe Tanigawa discovered recent vandalism crossed over into hate speech.

Over the holidays, did you post happy pictures about your personal life on social media? Did you do any online shopping, or use GPS? Did you think at all about what these activities do to your digital profile? If you did, Edward Snowden’s revelations about government spying probably influenced you. Snowden will be a panel member in an upcoming immersive at the Doris Duke Theatre that looks at our lives under surveillance. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

Sailing into 2018, we all wish each other an easy, pleasant year, free of hardship and struggle. There are some, however, who relish adversity. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports printmaker Charles Cohan does things the hard way, and the evidence of struggle is invigorating to behold.

Tomorrow, Saturday, at 5pm, the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra is bringing musical fireworks and confetti to Kaka‘ako. The popular Salt complex will host the full symphony, mixing the trendy pub and grinds atmosphere with masterworks from Bizet and Tchaikovsky and popular tunes like the Harry Potter theme. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports Hawai‘i’s favorite maestro, JoAnn Falletta, will conduct the festive concert.